THE RED WALL N Evennt M UESVEUEMNTTH ME RUESDE WUAMLL I
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ENGLISH VERSION OF THE TEXT BOARDS THE RED WALL n EVENnT M UESVEUEMNTTH ME RUESDE WUAMLL i The Event Museum “Rote Mauer“ (The Red Wall) The event museum “The Red Wall“ is located in the Saint Veit Bastion, which was built under the reign of bishop Weigand von Redwitz in 1553 and is the oldest part of the fortress Forchheim. The name “Red Wall“ presumably goes back to the red colouration, which is due to the sandstone used for build- ing. In the inside of the bastion there are two barrel-vaulted casemates, which are reachable by a 19-meter-long de- clining corridor. The casemates were used for storing artil- lery and supplies, as well as giving protection to the de- fending team of the fortress against enemy fire. Serious fighting did not take place inside them. The internal walls of the casemates on two levels show deep niches with small openings. These were used as bar- bicans, but also for observing possible enemies. A well in the inside of the bastion's apex supplied the bas- tion team with sufficient drinking water. 1 An Overview of the Fortress Construction in Forchheim 18 15 2 12 3 11 4 8 10 1 19 9 6 16 5 17 13 7 14 Buildings of the prince bishops of Bamberg in Forchheim n Weigand von Redwitz 1 1553: 1. Old Italian Bastion 2 1556: The Bamberg Gate n Fuchs von Rügheim 3 1558: Northern Water House n EVENT MUSEUM THE RED WALL n Veit II. von Würtzburg 4 1561: 2. Old Italian Bastion 5 1567: Southern Water House 6 1567: The Gate of Reuth 7 1569: The Nuremberg Gate-Bastion n Zobel von Giebelstadt 8 1578: The Saddler's Gate n Johann Philipp von Gebsattel 9 1608: The Reuth Gate-Bastion n Voit von Rieneck 10 1655: 1. Valentini-Bastion 11 1656: 2. Valentini-Bastion 12 1657: Outer Ward Bastion 13 1660: Three Churches' Bastion 14 1672: The Nuremberg Gate Barbican n Peter Philipp von Dernbach 15 1675: Dernbach-Bastion 16 1683: Neuwerk‘s Bastion n Lothar Franz von Schönborn 17 1698: New Nuremberg Gate n Friedrich Karl von Schönborn 18 1745: Bamberg Gate Barbican 19 1746: Reuth Gate Barbican 2 Rampart of the Bishops The Fortress Forchheim The fortress of Forchheim with its bastionary defense sys- tem is viewed as one of the oldest and most significant for- tresses in Southern Germany. Over 200 years it was contin- uously reconstructed and renewed. In military terms the fortress had a significant position. It formed the southern rampart for the bishopric of Bamberg and played a crucial role in the defense of the bishopric territory. Moreover, the fortress with its richly decorated buildings played an important role for representational purposes. Although many parts of the fortress were demolished in the 19th and 20th century, the remaining parts are still impressive. They show the changeover from the medieval to the mod- ern fortress system. What Tales Heraldic Stones tell The fortress of Forchheim is not a building of one casting. Many bishops kept giving the facility a new face. As a sign of their building activities they left their heraldic signs on the walls of the fortress – like a seal on a document. Some of these heraldic stones are still in place where they were once placed, others were removed later, or fell victim to reconstruction or demolishing activities, some are exhib- ited in the Event Museum Red Wall. The heraldic stones tell the story of the Forchheim fortress, but also of the people, who ordered the building of this enormous facility. n EVENT MUSEUM THE RED WALL 3 Walls, Gates, Archers – Fortifications in medieval Times In the middle ages the Forchheim city area was smaller than the later fortress town and was surrounded by a high wall. This had been built in 1300 and since 1430/31 had been widened and enforced. The entrance into the city was made possible through four gates, and on the inner side of the wall ran a guard's walkway. From here attacking troops could be shot at by archers and bowmans. Towards the end of the 15th century the crossbow was replaced by new kinds of weapons, the harquebuses. The medieval fortress of Forchheim had little to counter these weapons. The old city wall kept disappearing, only the Saltor gate in the Northwest was saved from the old wall ring. Why was the new Fortress built? In the second margrave war of 1552 Forchheim was con- quered by the troops of margrave Albrecht Alcibiades von Brandenburg-Kulmbach and in part destroyed. The destruc- tion showed that the medieval defense system could not withstand the modern firearms of the 16th century. Town commander Claus von Egloffstein, therefore, insisted on expanding the Forchheim fortifications into a modern coun- try fortress. Here, the fortifications in Italy and France served him as models, which with their new way of building made conquering extremely difficult. Soon after the reconquering of Forchheim in August of 1552 prince bishop Weigand von Redwitz ordered the construction of new forti- fications. In total four old Italian as well as six French bas- tions with the corresponding fortress buildings were built. 4 Race between Fire and Stone: Better protection in the Bastion The origins of the early modern times fortress construc- tions lie in Italy. There the so-called old Italian bastionary system was developed. Their inventors had realized that the medieval city walls could not withstand these new kinds of weapons. The fortifications had to be protected through shorter pieces of wall and bevelled bastions. These bastions flanked the wall pieces and were to give the defenders a better protection. The old Italian bastionary system was refined in the 17th century by Sébastien le Prestre Marquis de Vauban. He developed the French bastionary system, in which he enlarged the now acute- angled running-towards-each-other bastions and making the wall sections in between even shorter. This improved the flank protection and enabled a gapless crossfire. Citizen Protest and growing Depts In 1561 Veit II. von Würzburg was elected bishop of Bamberg. In his 16-year-rule he continued to pursue the expansion of the Forchheim fortress, furthermore, the city area was enlarged by including several suburbs. The expansion of the city was, however, accompanied by mas- sive protests from the Forchheim citizens, because many homes, fields and gardens had to make place for the forti- fications. In the end, however, not the resistance of the citizens but the enormously high building costs of 5000 to 6000 guilders a year lead to a temporary standstill of the building activities. n EVENT MUSEUM THE RED WALL 5 Forchheim – an impregnable fortress After a several-year building stop, the successor of bishop Veit von Würtzburg continued the expansion of Forchheim as of 1577 and finished the fortress with the bastion at the Faulturm in 1582. However, at this point the fortress was no longer up to date in terms of the newest military standard. Therefore, a further expansion was begun by bishop Johann Philipp von Gebsattel at the beginning of the 17th century. When the Thirty Years' War broke out in 1618, Forchheim, besides the Rosenberg of Kronach, was the strongest for- tress of the bishopric. While Bamberg was conquered in Feb- ruary of 1632 by Swedish troops, Forchheim withstood the siege of the year 1634 mostly unharmed. Bastion, Ravelin, Glacis – which makes fortifications into a fortress? The most important part of a fortress was the bastion. These were mostly five-cornered ramparts, from which an attacker could be shot at. The defenders of the fortress were sta- tioned in nearby casemates. These are massive vaults, which could withstand even strong bombardments. The wall and rampart pieces between the individual bastions of a fortress were called curtain walls. These were additionally protected by triangular entrenchments in ditches before the wall, the so-called ravelins. Beyond the ditch was the glacis, an unde- veloped area. There were further buildings inside of the for- tress, such as for example the arsenal, in which the weapons for the fortress defence were stored. The extent of the Forchheim fortress was enormous: its walls were 3,5 kilo- metres long and on an average 14 meters high. 6 The Fortress is modernised After the end of the Thirty Years' War a fundamental re- newal and expansion of the fortress Forchheim was begun in 1648. Its initiator was bishop Philipp Valentin Voit von Rieneck, who is regarded as the “moderniser” of the for- tress of Forchheim. Under his reign the change of Forchheim into a baroque fortress city was started in 1655. To reduce the enormous building costs, Rieneck intro- duced the so-called “Schanzfron” (defence voluntary work). This forced the peasants of the surrounding area to take part in building the fortress by either delivering food or working as labourers on the fortress. Building Art and involuntary Labour – Who built the fortress? A multitude of master builders, engineers, carpenters, and masons worked on the fortifications. Some of them were famous artists, others are in the meantime mostly forgotten. As master builders Jobst Remlein, Erasmus Braun, David Hantsch, Paulus Behaim, Jörg Stern, Paulus Keit, Hans Hantsch, Matthias Kager, Johann Christein, Maximillian von Welsch, Balthasar Neumann, Johann Jakob Michael Küchel and Lorenz Fink took part in plan- ning the fortress. As masons among others Hans Polster, Kilian Sorg, Hans von Wemding and Jakob Mailik have been proven. In 1560 the painter Jakob Ziegler framed some of the heraldic stones created by him in colour. The actual building process was performed by Forchheim's citizens and peasants from the surrounding areas as involuntary labour and by prisoners.